


I Need a Hero

by Backfired



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Getting Together, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-05-13 23:18:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19261165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Backfired/pseuds/Backfired
Summary: Sometimes it takes a life-threatening event or two to finally get two idiots together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> working title because i'm terrible with titles :(  
> EDIT: SORRY i keep changing the title omg. hopefully this will be the last time

“I’ve got it!”

 

Taeil burst into Johnny’s room at 8:45am sharp, giving him such a surprise, he dropped the book he was reading on the floor.

 

“Well, good morning to you too—?”

 

Taeil ignored Johnny’s greeting and grabbed him by the shoulders.

 

“It’s the waves! They’re both waves! Well at least, light’s partly a wave, but that’s enough! Enough for me to control it a bit!”

 

Johnny put up his hands, “Woah woah woah, slow down there. Fill me in again on what we’re talking about here?”

 

Taeil, uncharacteristically restless with excitement, released Johnny’s shoulders and started pacing the room.

 

“You see—I control sound, but sound is really just waves, and I thought, what if I can control other things that are also waves, since that’s basically what I’m doing? And suddenly it occurred to me, light is also a wave—well a wave and a particle, though that’s beside the point—but the wave part of it may be enough for me to control it a bit, especially after some practice. Anyway, I’ve been testing it out since last night and finally got it this morning! It was a complete success! Watch this.”

 

Taeil brought his pointer finger up in front of him and his face scrunched up in concentration. Johnny peered intently at the tip of Taeil’s finger. After a solid few moments of seemingly nothing, when Johnny was just about to speak up and ask “am I supposed to be seeing something?” suddenly, the space above Taeil’s finger seemed to warp a bit, distorting a small spherical area. It lasted just a few seconds, before Taeil suddenly let out a huge breath of exhaustion and promptly collapsed down onto the other unoccupied desk chair. He smiled tiredly up at Johnny’s baffled face. “See? Complete success.”

 

Johnny raised an eyebrow, “Uh yeaaahh...I’d give that at least a few more month’s practice before you try using that out on the field.” He pat Taeil’s arm in reassurance, “Nice thinking though. Guess those high school physics classes really did pay off huh?”

 

Taeil pouted at Johnny’s unenthusiastic reaction. “I guess you’re right.” 

 

 _He didn’t even put up a fight._  Johnny thought in surprise.  _Must be the sleep deprivation._  

 

Taeil suddenly perked up again, “But hey, did you try out that idea I suggested?”

 

Johnny wracked his brain for what Taeil could be referring to. He tended to give quite a lot of “suggestions.”

 

“Oh, the matter controlling one? A little bit, but to be honest it seems way out of my capability right now. I’ll leave the quantum physics up to Jungwoo for the time being.”

 

Taeil chuckled, “Alright, fair enough.”

 

He suddenly got up and stretched, yawning, “I’ll catch you later during lunch then? I have some sleep to catch up on.”

 

“Yep, same as always.” Johnny gave a little salute in confirmation as Taeil headed out of his room. Taeil gave a quick salute back before completely disappearing around the corner, presumably headed back to his own room.

 

Just as Johnny picked his book back up from the floor and was planning on continuing his reading, Doyoung popped his head around the door.

 

“Seo, I need you for a moment.”

 

Without waiting for his reply, Doyoung disappeared back around the doorframe. Sighing in resignation at the loss of a peaceful morning reading session, Johnny bookmarked his place and dutifully followed behind. Doyoung had set off at a brisk pace down the brightly lit corridor and Johnny had to jog a bit to catch up.

 

“What’s the situation? Am I getting dispatched?”

 

Doyoung sighed, “No, I just need you to help me wrangle these idiot board members into approving our newest budget projection.”

 

“What? They’re still on our asses about that when we’ve saved the city how many times now? How stingy can those bastards get?”

 

“Tell me about it. I’ve been arguing with them for the past two hours and they still haven’t come around. I’m hoping with your much more adept people skills we can finally get them to see the light.”

 

Johnny chuckled, “Fair enough, I’ll see what I can do.” He paused, before hesitantly saying, “And Taeyong...?”

 

Doyoung just frowned, shaking his head. “Still out like a light. That last mission really took it out of him. I keep telling him to use more moderation, but he never listens. One of these days he’s gonna work himself to death...” Doyoung trailed off, not finishing the thought they were both thinking. For a moment it was just the soft squeak of their sneakers against the polished white floors.

 

Johnny pat Doyoung’s back, trying to lighten up the suddenly somber mood. “That’d be way too much paperwork though, right?”

 

Doyoung snorted, “Yeah, I’d kick his ass myself before letting him leave me with all the mind-numbing administrative and legal work.”

 

Johnny laughed at the characteristic reply, but quickly sobered up as they neared the large silver doors that sealed off the conference room. Doyoung tapped in the key code with practiced ease, the doors sliding open near-silently with a mechanical whir. Johnny followed Doyoung’s lead into the dark room, the only light coming from the various screens set up around the long mahogany conference table that displayed the disgruntled faces of the members of the board.

 

The city mayor at the head of the table greeted them as they entered, “Ah finally. Nice of you to join us again, Veers. And Morpheus, welcome. Please, sit.”

 

Johnny bowed to the members of the board before joining Doyoung, who had already taken his seat at the table.

 

“It’s a shame that Aion is still out of commission and unable to join us for such an important discussion, but I trust that you’ll be able to fill in his shoes, Morpheus.”

 

Johnny could see Doyoung’s eyebrow twitch in irritation from the corner of his eye, but interrupted before he could make a snippy remark, “Of course Mayor Park, members of the board. I will do my utmost to assist Vice Captain Veers in facilitating this meeting in lieu of Captain Aion’s attendance. My goal is to reach an amicable conclusion to our negotiations in as smooth and timely a manner as possible.” Johnny flashed one of his winning smiles, and the mayor and board members nodded in approval.

 

“Well said, Morpheus. Well then, let us reconvene.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong - Aion  
> Taeil - Quaver  
> Johnny - Morpheus  
> Yuta - Hightail  
> Doyoung - Veers  
> Jaehyun - Jet  
> Jungwoo - Flux  
> Mark - MKII (Mark)  
> Haechan - Psyche  
> Winwin - Salvor
> 
> apologies to taeyong for having drake's "like a light" verse from sicko mode stuck in my head while writing this :/  
> full disclosure i only have a vague idea of where this is going...
> 
> feel free to yell @ me here or on twitter @dedecoris or @deductus (writing twit)
> 
> also feel free to guess what everyone's powers are from their names ;)


	2. Chapter 2

Taeil did not, in fact, end up returning to his room for some well needed rest. Instead, he decided to visit Haechan, who he was sure would have a much more enthusiastic reaction to his discovery than Johnny did.

 

When he arrived at Haechan’s door, the last room at the end of the brightly lit hall, he knocked first out of politeness, but didn’t wait for a reply before barging in in excitement.

 

“Haechan! You won’t believe what I finally—!” He abruptly paused as his eyes registered what he was seeing in front of him. “Errr, am I interrupting something?”

 

Haechan was sitting in his desk chair by his bed, where a prone Mark lay. The cavity of Mark’s chest was open, showing the many intricate mechanical workings inside. Haechan was in the compromising position of being elbow deep in said chest cavity, his arms covered in grease.

 

Both had snapped their heads around in surprise at Taeil’s sudden entrance.

 

Face splitting into a grin when he recognized who it was, Mark said, “Yo Taeil! Wassup!” while Haechan just pursed his lips. His arms didn’t budge from where they were still lodged in Mark’s chest.

 

Taeil stared at Haechan.  Haechan stared back at Taeil.

 

Finally, Haechan sighed, “Is this important? Or could you possibly...come back another time?”

 

With a devious smile, Taeil nodded slowly in understanding, throwing them both an exaggerated wink and finger guns.

 

“Don’t worry you two, your secret is safe with Uncle Taeil! I’ll leave you two to your...tinkering.” And with that Taeil slipped back out of the room with only a suggestive eyebrow wiggle, not staying long enough to hear Haechan’s dramatic groan or Mark’s confused, “Dude, what was that about?”

 

* * *

 

 

With Haechan being...preoccupied, Taeil decided to visit Jungwoo next. Jungwoo was a fellow experimental enthusiast, and Taeil was sure he would be at least equally appreciative as Haechan would’ve been of Taeil’s scientific advancements.

Jungwoo’s room was in a more secluded area of the base, as it was originally a guest room that was later renovated when Jungwoo joined the team last year. Having learned his lesson from last time, Taeil knocked and waited this time for a “come in!” before sliding open the door and stepping into the room.

 

“Hey Jung—" before Taeil could even get a proper greeting out edgeways, he was tackle-hugged by the man himself, who immediately plastered himself to Taeil’s side, smushing his cheek into Taeil’s.

 

“Taeil!! My favorite hyung!”

 

At this point Jungwoo attempted to smother Taeil’s face in kisses, but with some forceful struggling on his part, Taeil finally managed to extricate himself from Jungwoo’s suffocating embrace.

Holding Jungwoo at bay and at arm’s length to maintain his personal bubble, Taeil breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Alright, enough of that, now.”

 

Jungwoo peered up at him with endearing puppy eyes, but Taeil resisted.

 

“I’m here to show you one of my newest experimental power developments, which I’m sure you’ll share my excitement for. I spent all of last night trying to figure it out, and I finally got it this morning. Behold!”

 

At this point Taeil had to let go of Jungwoo to bring his hand in front of him and focus his power at the small area above his finger, and he hoped that he wouldn’t be glomped again in the process. Thankfully Jungwoo seemed more focused on Taeil’s new discovery than his over affectionate displays of...affection.

 

After a few minutes of tense concentration and silence wherein Taeil was on the verge of breaking out in a cold sweat, a spherical area above his pointer finger finally began to warp and morph out of shape. After holding it for barely a moment, Taeil let out a huge breath and collapsed in exhaustion onto Jungwoo’s neatly made bed.

 

“See?” He said tiredly, managing to lift a single arm to gesture vaguely about. “Waves! Light! Light waves!” It was a much more abbreviated version of the explanation he’d given to Johnny, but hopefully Jungwoo would catch the gist of it. Man, doing that two times in a day really took it out of him.

 

Jungwoo nodded slowly, somehow comprehending his garbled and lazy explanation.

 

“I see...since you can control sound waves, and light is partly a wave, you can control light somewhat too. Amazing, the possibilities for the field application of that are truly astounding!” Jungwoo was pacing the room excitedly now, nodding to himself. “If you harnessed that correctly, you could create visual illusions, or better yet, change the appearance of reality entirely!” Jungwoo abruptly turned on his heel and grabbed Taeil by the shoulders. “Taeil! This is a huge breakthrough! You’re a genius!”

 

Taeil laughed, still tired but ecstatic that someone finally was as excited about his discovery as he was. Sure, the applications that Jungwoo listed off were far beyond his current capability, but given enough time and practice...

 

Jungwoo blinked, nonplussed as he stared down at the now unconscious, sleeping Taeil lying on  _his_  bed. How dare Taeil drop such an amazing discovery in his lap like that, and then immediately doze off? Now who was he going to bounce ideas off of? Besides, he had been planning on showing Taeil a bit of what he was working on with his powers too.

 

With a sigh of resignation Jungwoo decided to just let Taeil snore away on his bed as he worked on his own things. At least this way Jungwoo could pester him the moment he woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the short chapters, hoping they'll force me into updating more often until i hit a writing groove


	3. Chapter 3

A woosh of air and the peals of an alarm as the hangar doors cranked open heralded the arrival of Jaehyun. He stepped through the entryway, hair still windswept from his flight back from the mission, and began peeling off layers of his super suit as he headed towards the changing room. Yuta had already arrived back earlier, as usual, despite the fact that they had been assigned to the same mission. Perks of his superpower and all.

 

Jaehyun methodically hung up his gear next to Yuta’s, taking his time to change into his indoors uniform. The mission had been simple enough, just some quick recon up north, so he thankfully didn’t have any significant injuries that would require him to report to medical. The extra paperwork was always such a hassle. He missed the simpler times when WinWin would just covertly heal their wounds before they got back so they could avoid reporting to medical. He sighed, at least WayV would have access to that particular convenience now.

 

Once he was neatly dressed in his uniform, he keyed in his ID to lock the room behind him and took the familiar path back towards his room, mind now preoccupied with the mission report he still had to write.

 

* * *

 

The board meeting lasted another five hours. Not that long, considering the mind-boggling amount of time it sometimes took for corporate-types to reach a decision on the tiniest thing.  Despite the fact that it could have been worse, Doyoung still groaned loudly with relief as he and Johnny finally left the conference room. Johnny chuckled tiredly, agreeing with the sentiment.

 

“God, it’s like pulling teeth with those people.” Doyoung pinched at the bridge of his nose in exasperation, “Next time I’m throwing Taeyong to them alone with no support—see how he likes it.”

 

Johnny huffed out an amused laugh, “I’d love to see his face after that.”

 

Doyoung rolled his eyes, “I can see it now. He’d look so betrayed. But it’s what he deserves after what he’s put me through.”

 

Just as Johnny was about to reply and admonish Doyoung for being too hard on Taeyong, they rounded the corner and Johnny spotted Jaehyun walking down the corridor away from them.

 

Johnny immediately brightened and called out to him, “Hey Jaehyun! I was actually just looking for you!” He jogged a bit to catch up to Jaehyun, who had stopped and turned around when he heard Johnny call his name. Doyoung headed off in the opposite direction towards his own room, giving a wave of thanks to Johnny as he left. Johnny waved back, before turning back to Jaehyun.

 

“What’s up?” Jaehyun asked. Johnny could tell he had just come back from a mission with how windblown his hair still looked. Brushing away the sudden urge he had to comb Jaehyun’s hair back in place, he focused again on their conversation.

 

“So you know those schematics I gave you last week?” he asked.

 

Jaehyun’s face lit up, “Oh yeah! They looked great. I really liked the shock absorption factor you added, I think it would really help with the muscle strain I’ve been feeling lately.”

 

“Oh awesome, that’s good to hear. I’ll pass them off to R&D then? Unless you think Jungwoo should take a look at them first?”

 

Jaehyun laughed and pat Johnny on the shoulder, “Nah, I trust your judgment. Thanks for everything, by the way. You didn’t have to go out of your way and design a whole new suit…”

 

Johnny grinned sheepishly, “Don’t worry, it was nothing really…Besides, how could I ignore my bro, who came and confided in me about his superhero woes?”

 

Jaehyun laughed and cuffed Johnny good naturedly on the shoulder, “You’re the best, dude.” Just then, his wristwatch beeped, lighting up with a message from Yuta.

 

 

> **YUTA🏃💨**
> 
> hey can u come to conference room 3 i want to cross-reference with u abt the site

 

Jaehyun sighed and gave an apologetic smile to Johnny, “Sorry, duty calls.”

 

Johnny nodded in understanding. Paperwork. Always the last remaining obstacle after every mission.

 

“No worries. Talk to you later during dinner?”

 

“You bet!” Jaehyun called over his shoulder as he left down the hall, giving a little salute.

 

Johnny waited and watched him disappear around the corner first before finally turning and heading back to his own room for some well-earned rest and relaxation.

 

* * *

 

 

On the way back to his room, Doyoung decided to drop by Taeyong’s first. It was just across the hall from his so it wasn’t exactly a trek, but still. The thought that counts and all.

 

He tapped in his keycode into the pad next to Taeyong’s door, which slid open for him after a beep of confirmation.  While the members usually kept their doors unlocked during the day for convenience’s sake, Taeyong was currently in a vulnerable state, and therefore was under orders to have his door locked at all times. Only the members, attending physicians, and nurses had access to the room.  

 

Doyoung slipped in quietly and lowered himself slowly onto the chair next to Taeyong’s bed, which hadn’t been moved from its place since he had last been in the room early that morning. The quiet of the room was disturbed only by Taeyong’s even breathing and the beep of the vital signs monitor near the head of the bed. 

 

Doyoung watched him for a bit. He almost looked peaceful, even more so than he did when he was actually asleep. If not for the unnaturally pale complexion and IV drip attached to his arm, Doyoung would’ve believed he was just taking a nap. He tamped down the sudden urge he had to brush Taeyong’s bangs off of his forehead and instead settled a hand near Taeyong’s on the bed, almost touching, but not quite.  

 

It had been a little over a week and a half already, but still Taeyong showed no signs of waking up. Last time, the longest he’d been out was a week, but that had been back when WinWin was still with the team and was providing a healthy stream of healing energy. Usually Taeyong was only out for a few days at worst, but now that Doyoung thought about it, that was probably only due to sheer stubbornness and brash disregard for doctors’ orders for bed rest on Taeyong’s part.

 

As he stared at Taeyong’s pale, prone form, he tried to not think about how it all went wrong, but the memory kept coming back to him.

 

It was always disorienting whenever Taeyong used his powers. At first, the team didn’t even notice when he’d used them, because to them their timeline flowed continuously, whereas in reality they’d already been turned back in time. It had taken the team members quite a while to get used to, and R&D actually theorized that prolonged and close proximity exposure might eventually make them more capable of retaining “erased” memories of events that technically never happened. Up until now though, there’d been no such memories. Just a healthy and then suddenly exhausted Taeyong standing with them from one moment to the next.

 

But this time was different. Doyoung couldn’t remember any other details about what had gone wrong during the mission, but he still remembered Taeyong’s last words. They were seared into his mind, replaying over and over again no matter how hard he tried to bury them. Doyoung had yelled at him, calling him an idiot with a death wish, and Taeyong had just smiled at him, his face and clothes dirty with soot and ash and yet somehow still shining, and told him, “It’s okay, Doyoung-ah. I have to do this.”

 

Doyoung stared, tightlipped, at Taeyong’s pale, unconscious face. As if he could wake him up if he just glared hard enough. He finally let himself grab Taeyong’s hand, keeping his grip loose so as not to jostle the pulse oximeter on his index finger.  Taeyong’s fingers were worryingly cold and stiff, and Doyoung reflexively tightened his hold.

 

“Don’t die on me, idiot.” He whispered, for no one to hear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this will be a lighthearted fic, I said. no angst just shenanigans, I said. well my own brain betrayed me so now we're here
> 
> sorry I don't update my writing as much, but u can talk to me & see my embarrassing taedo doodles [@deductus](http://twitter.com/deductus) on twit


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